2013 Elections Info Resources: A little helping hand for young voters

It’s May 1 and it’s a holiday, and instead of trolling Tumblr or 9Gag or Buzzfeed, I hope many of you take this day off as a time to read up on election-related materials. It’s time to start concretizing your decisions for May 13!

(YOU GUYS! 12 days left til elections! ARE YOU EXCITED! <– This is me in real life, ask my interns)

Last night, I tweeted about my Info Overload problem because all the big news outfits are doing election info campaigns from every single angle possible, that it’s gotten quite difficult and overwhelming to sift through everything. I’ve been asked many times about what website/s I can recommend, so here are my thoughts.

For now, let me tackle two ways you can approach your research and decision process –

You should check out GMA News’ Isyu Ng Bayan. Two things I really like about this: 1) There is a general description of what each issue is about, and 2) when you hover on each of the senatoriables’ photos — you can read direct quotes that depict their stand on said issue/legislation.

I know a lot of people like Politi-Ko because it got GMA’s information and made it into a quiz-like algorithm. HOWEVER, I feel like it’s an oversimplification of the decision process, so I really DO NOT recommend relying on it. You can still check it out though, because it’s a great initiative, and I hope the same guys who created it can really supercharge it for the 2016 elections.

If you’re excited to do more: Jump off from the quotes in Isyu ng Bayan that really caught your attention. Turn to Google and research based on those. Try to see if that was just lip service, or if that person actually accomplished tangible results to further that stance/advocacy.

Rappler.com’s PHVote: Candidate Briefs has got to be my favorite resume format out of all the news sites. You should check out their cool timeline concept, where you can see each senatoriable’s history of affiliations, education, and employment.

I just wish they also had a timeline of major issues and news stories on each candidate — whether it’s a scandal/accusation (I mean this in the most un-tabloid way possible), a controversial stand on a certain topic, corruption allegations (most especially!!!) and how they responded to those.

There has always been beef about Filipinos having a short wick of history, and how we tend to forget things so easily (um, say hello to the number of Marcoses and Estradas in elected positions right now), so I think that sort of timeline can put this into perspective.

I was just talking to an Ateneo Political Science professor the other day and he was bringing up all these controversies of some of the current senatoriables, from the 80s/90s — crazy things that I wasn’t even remotely aware of!

If you’re excited to know more:A resume is just titles and numbers, so we really need to crack our Googling knuckles on this one. Think of it as Facebook stalking your new crush (o, don’t deny) – kung anong ginaling niyo doon, just apply it to your candidates! Also, it might be a good call to ask elders whose opinions you respect (i.e. your brilliant History or Political Science prof), about any red flags of morality that might’ve been raised way before, especially for the older candidates.

PS. Other useful links: Find your precinct with the COMELEC precinct finder, and get your how-to-vote technical questions answered through this list of election FAQs. If anybody can find a quantifiable measure of goodness and morality – GOOD LORD please let me know.

I truly hope this helps!

I woke up at 5:30 AM today to throw this together really really quickly because I’m reeeeeeeeeeaally hoping you use this holiday wisely. I talked to Bianca Gonzalez, Atom Araullo, and Sam YG (wait for it — soon on this site!) and all of them agree that choosing who to vote for is hard work. Hard – but exciting and fulfilling work.

So I hope you take the time today to redefine Labor Day: and celebrate it by putting in the work to make sure that you use your vote – your voice in our government -

in a way that gives you the service, and the future, that we all deserve.

How do you feel about the coming elections? Are you excited? Less excited than 2010? Oh and – do you think there are other fantastic links/resources I should read and share with everyone? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS. I HAVE TO KNOW. ;) Good morning!

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Wanderrgirl: Our mission is to channel and use creativity as a tool for nation-building, and to empower other young people to do the same, by making those game-changing opportunities fun and accessible!

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